Portugal Trip Suggestions

Regarding car rentals, take a look at autoeurope which is a car consolidator. An automatic will be more expensive than a manual transmission. Make sure you get a transponder for the toll roads, which are nice in Portugal. You will be covering a lot of distance in a short time, so the toll roads make the most sense. You do not want a car in Porto or Lisbon since the streets are narrow and the car will be a hassle. For Sintra and Obidos, leave the car in a car park and walk to the sites.

Not asked, but since you mentioned Lisbon, Porto, and Sintra are your main places of interest, I would strongly suggest not getting a car. My advice would be to take a train between Porto and Lisbon (fast and nice), then day trip via train to Sintra from Lisbon. A car is great for between Lisbon and Porto if you have much more time to visit the small towns. But you don't have that time.

My God, you are sprinting when you should be ambling!

A three-day visit flying out of a different city than that you flew into?

At the very least, ditch the car plan. See a bit of Porto, take the train to Lisbon and see a pinch of that wonderful city.

Dennis

on the 6th you will spend most of the day in the car, between driving, sitting in traffic and looking for parking, Driving in Porto and Lisbon is very difficult - steep hills, one-way streets, and lots of traffic. If you want to see either city "on wheels" - take trams, trolleys, and buses.

Neither this itinerary nor your plan for Italy is reasonable. You can't possibly "explore" major cities in less than a day EACH.

Me and my wife are "Fast travelers", but what you propose is absolutely insane.

The car rental place is a shuttle ride away. So say you arrive at 8am, by the time you make it through to the car shuttle, its another 30 mins...and there is a line...so lets say best scenario you get your car by 10am, then its 30 mins to the city. Find a parking spot, 11am to park then find lunch? So how long you going to be in Porto "Exploring"? Let say 4 hours and see like 2-3 things. Then its a 2+ hour drive to Pinhao....if you want to actually explore the n222 road its like 3+ hours to see the views and maybe stop...So thats what 8-9pm at night?

6th, Coimbra is 1-2 hours drive...stop for a few hours? its noon.....Now you think you can hit Obidos/Peniche in 1-2 hours? Then go to sintra lte night when its closed?

NO WAY YOU CAN DO THIS

Thanks for the reply. This is how I am thinking of.

Day 1: Arive in Porto Airport at 10 30am and hire a car. Travel to duoro valley and come back to Porto and explore Porto from evening till night. OR, take train to regua from porto and explore duoro valley from there and come back to porto by train in the evening.

Day 2: Hire a car today or continue the car from previous day (if I dont do the train option) and drive to sintra and explore sintra. After which I drive to Praia da Adraga/Ursa Beach/Praia do Guincho. Please suggest if there are any better options from sintra to lisbon or from porto to sintra or any scenic routes to drive in.

Return car and stay in lisbon.

Day 3: Explore Lisbon the whole day. I have my flight at 9Pm.

Please suggest

I don't know how easy this would be, but if it's possible to search this and other on-line travel forums by key-word themes, I would suggest trying to dig up some of the horror stories that travellers have posted about driving into Sintra. (Though I admit that maybe November won't be as bad as high tourist season.)

There's a couple of parking lots to park a car and then walk into the Sintra, a bit before the train station. You can google it to find the parking lots. We had a car on one of our trips, and that's what we did (We were staying on the silver coast at that time)

Now we did see some who choose to drive into town and they ended up parking up on one of the hills even further away than the lots.

If this “drive by” style of travel works for you, then go for it. I think you’ll find most folks on these forums would encourage you to slow down and spend some time in the places you are visiting. Both your Portugal and Italy itineraries leave you spending as much time driving, looking for parking, and finding/checking into your lodging as enjoying the destination. I haven’t been to Portugal but I’m planning a trip for spring to Lisbon and I’m cutting out Porto and Douro Valley because we only have five nights. Do what you enjoy but understand what you are proposing.

Guys I am planning to do porto, sintra and lisbon by train/bus. Will be landing on 5th Nov morning in Porto around 10am and leaving from Lisbon airport on 7th Nov at 9 15 PM. Planning to take Andante tour card for 24 hr in Porto for seeing around in Porto on 5th Nov morning which will be valid till 6th Nov morning. After which I plan to travel to Lisbon by train/bus. I plan to see lisbon on 6th and sintra on 7th or vice versa. 24h Carris/Metro/CP ticket and other various types of 24h tickets are available. I also plan to go to one of the beaches near lisbon (I believe cascais beaches are good) or sintra.
Which type of metro pass here would work best for me ? Can you please suggest ?

I would not bother with the beach in november!
Otherwise there is a 24-hour, €10.70 Carris/Metro/CP ticket that is valid all the way to Sintra (but not on local buses), but I am not sure that it is worth it because fares are very cheap! E.g. €4.60 round-trip for Lisbon to Sintra.

Also guys which areas in porto and lisbon should I stay so that I am close to all the main attractions?

For Lisbon, look at the Baixa/Chiado area. It is on the metro line and by Rossio train station if you decide to go to Sintra. Many sites within walking distance.

Viva Viagem 24 hours pass or zapping (pre-load a set amount) would work well for your time. It's easy to use the metro to get from your accommodations to the airport at the end of your trip.

For Porto, I like the Ribeira close to the riverbank of the Douro. It's pleasant to walk along the river bank and cross the bridge at night. Can get rather lively and crowded though. But this might not be as close to the attractions as you would like, depending on what you want to see.